Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen of the print and electronic media. Welcome once more to another press conference at the secretariat of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) to bring you up to date with ongoing crucial matters affecting members.
Employees of the Public Service have not enjoyed any increases in pay or earnings since January 2019. This situation is compounded in many respects because of Covid-19 and the necessary precautions workers are required to consider in their own health and safety, which results in significant increase in expenditures coupled with rise in cost of living.
Public Servants were therefore subjected to the economic fallouts of COVID-19, among other things and had had to work throughout year in the deadly environment without any consideration for increases in pay and have continued to do so to date. They have seen their purchasing power eroded by the economic conditions that persists globally, without timely stop gaps or considerations by Government.
Proposals for a new regime of salaries and allowances were submitted to Government on September 1, 2020 and to date there has been no meeting date set for the negotiation of new rates of pay and allowances. As cost of living skyrockets, Government has seemingly ignored the cry of the working class by “turning a deaf ear” to the requirements for bargaining and consensus. As such, the working class is made to suffer without any hope of timely redress. Only yesterday, the price of gasoline was increased by $8.00 per litre, adding more pressure to workers’ woes.
Government has vacillated with the payment of a risk allowance to critical frontline workers of the public service, even though agreed to in principle previously by both sides. The risk allowance is merited and found favour in certain circles of Government, but has apparently been stifled by power brokers within Government to the detriment of the workers.
In relation to bargaining for increased salaries and allowances, the GPSU has sent reminders to the Government representatives calling on them to respect their obligations under the legally binding “Agreement for the Avoidance and Settlement of Disputes” by commencing negotiations. The failure to respond to the GPSU seems to convey the impression that they are inviting a confrontation.
The GPSU recognizes that all workers have a right to a living wage and as the representative of Public Sector workers the GPSU has sought to be as non-confrontational as possible, but candid and strong in its representations for good governance, national unity, human rights, fair treatment and evenhandedness. In this regard, the GPSU has always advocated that the Government must lead by example, uphold the rule of law and conduct itself consistent with its Oath of office. Sadly, this has not been the case.
Over the past decades the GPSU has had to mobilize its members and law abiding citizens to enforce the rule of law. This should not be a requirement.
The Government has been displaying sensitivity and generosity in many things, including other states like Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines, where to its credit a timely humanitarian response was made, recently. Locally, it has approved two hundred million dollars for GUYSUCO and its workers, but not a cent for Public Sector workers, who take the risks to ensure collectability and stewardship for Government Funds and carry out its mandate.
It therefore seems that there is a well-orchestrated plan to suffocate workers in the Public Sector and by extension their families. Such acts are inhumane and cruel, in the very least. Why is Government so boldly resisting the cries for a better wage for its workers in Healthcare, Aviation, Agriculture and Drainage and Irrigation, Education, Judiciary and Law Enforcement, Finance, Accounting and Auditing, Revenue Collection and other service sectors? Why are pensioners, who have given yeoman service to the nation, treated so scantily and inhumanely to the extent that some currently live on the streets? Why is Government putting politics and profit over caring for its people? It is time to expose the hypocrisy. Clearly, what we are experiencing is not a genuine policy of evenhandedness and equal treatment for all.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press and Electronic Media, this Government went on the campaign trail touting 50% increases in salary to public servants over a year ago.
We are aware that the state coffers could afford to pay a substantial increase to every level of workers, to what is currently being paid to the public service workers. We know that a living wage could be paid as the commencing salary to a public sector worker – the obstacle is merely the government’s unwillingness to do so and apparent collusion, their obligations appear to be the business sector rather than the working class. This is manifested in what is permitted in the Covid 19 environment freeing up practices that should be restricted. Clearly this contributed to the escalation of fatalities and infections in Guyana. Also the workers should be provided with the justification as to why corporate taxes of 25% is less than PAYE which is 28% at the lowest level and why has the government not increased the national minimum wage – all these matters are connected. Why is a government that had claimed to have working class credentials, displaying such anti-working persecution?
We are almost on the eve of May Day, the workers’ day internationally, and the government seems not to care about the impressions they convey to the public service workers, nor workers in general.
In fact one needs to seriously interrupt what the government was conveying when they gave the one off payment of $25,000 to public service workers in 2020, the identical amount that they pay monthly as old age pension. They have publicly indicated that consideration is being given to making another payment of $25,000 in 2021.
Public Servants have been providing quality public services for the pass years without any meaningful economic improvement in their earnings and are being pressured to perform in an increasingly deadly environment, which is hostile and vulnerable. Public Servants are not the property of the government nor are they public slaves. The days of slavery are long gone.
It is most disturbing that in Guyana we have been experiencing such difficulty with repeated governments notwithstanding the promises that were made to have respect shown and the discipline of compliance displayed to workers’ right. This assurance was given in 1992, but not honoured. Again in 2015 there was the promise of the restoration of Collective Bargaining but this did not happen. In 2020 there was the commitment of inclusiveness and the slogan ‘A government for all’. This has been replaced with rejection and political discrimination – which has resulted in the lack of trust by the employees towards their employer.
The Guyana Public Service Union is once more calling on the Government of Guyana to cease this unconscionable, uncaring and insensitive approach in addressing the protection and welfare of public servants, the premier workforce – the frontline workforce. It is time to respect the Public Servants, who for all intents and purposes are not the property of Government, but citizens of this Country that require better standards of living and enjoyment of its rich resources.
April 27, 2021.